The traditional Aboriginal communities of the region were to be moved for their own safety but somehow they were covered in radioactive fallout. Some of the local Anangu people suffered radiation poisoning and died and many are still enduring the effects of that toxic exposure today.

Earlier this year a book of stories and paintings depicting the horrendous results of the testing was published in South Australia. It details those stories, of when the bombs came, first hand.">

Programs

Summer Series: Maralinga: The Anangu Story

Sunday 17 January 2010, 1:30pm ABC1

50 years ago secret atomic tests were carried out on Australian soil at a place called "Maralinga" in north–western South Australia.The traditional Aboriginal communities of the region were to be moved for their own safety but somehow they were covered in radioactive fallout. Some of the local Anangu people suffered radiation poisoning and died and many are still enduring the effects of that toxic exposure today.

Earlier this year a book of stories and paintings depicting the horrendous results of the testing was published in South Australia. It details those stories, of when the bombs came, first hand.

MIRIAM COROWA:Hello, I'm Miriam Corowa and welcome to Message Stick's Summer Series. 50 years ago atomic bomb tests were carried out on Australian soil at a place called "Maralinga" in north–western South Australia.Many of the region's Anangu people were moved but some were covered in deadly radioactive fallout at the time. Others still suffer the effects of that toxic exposure today. Earlier this year a book of stories and paintings depicting the horrendous results of the tests was published in South Australia. Film maker Pauline Clague went to Australia's Chernobyl to hear those stories first hand

ALICE COX AND MABEL QUEAMA: They never say it will bomb.

ALICE COX: Were dropping.

ALICE COX AND MABEL QUEAMA: Secret.

ALICE COX: They live in secret way. Didn't say any word.

(EXPLOSION BOOMS)

MABEL QUEAMA: When the bomb went off... the spirit of the people that were buried there went up in the bomb. And this man looked down, and he's crying. And all the kangaroos, emus, are all just skeletons around the place where the bomb went off.

PAULINE CLAGUE: From 1953 to 1963, British forces, alongside the Australian services, carried out seven series of atomic tests in an area that was originally an Aboriginal reserve for the Pitjantjatjara and the Gugada Peoples of the Great Victoria Desert. Named Maralinga, a Yolngu name for thunder, it was chosen because it was desert land that was considered uninhabited. The power of the A-bombs detonated in the series of tests was equivalent to 100,000 tonnes of explosives. The most secretive series were called "the minor trials", but there was nothing minor about these experiments. Nearly 700 trials of air and land missile strikes were tested over the decade. They released 100kg of radioactive and toxic elements on Anangu land.

MARTHA EDWARDS:The wind blew them to one side, and then they turn the wind the other way. And we were sitting there in the smoke. And I was sitting there in a humpy. All the people were cooking away, cooking and eating or making something - boomerang. As always. We knew nothing that the thing was coming up in Maralinga. A lot of people denied it. Us people didn't know.

TV REPORTER IN INTERVIEW: Mr MacDougall, this patrol you're going on, where will it take and just how long do you think you'll be gone?

MR MACDOUGALL: I expect to be away for about six weeks, and I'll be on the border of three states - South Australia, Northern Territory and on the West Australian border.

TV REPORTER IN INTERVIEW: Tell me, are there many natives in that area now?

MR MACDOUGALL: We think there are about 1,000 to 1,200 who are still living in that area.

MABEL QUEAMA: No longer Mr MacDougall. Mr MacDougall would go around and catch up with people, you know?

ALICE COX: Mm.

MABEL QUEAMA: He was gonna go west coast.

ALICE COX: West coast.

MABEL QUEAMA: He never say anything.

ALICE COX: "We can't leave this land, we love this land." "No people, no person can stop here. Nobody.” You know, all gone, west coast.

PAULINE CLAGUE:In 1952, the Ooldea Mission was closed. Some of the community were moved to Western Australia. Others to the Riverlands in South Australia. Most were moved to new country - Yalata, coastal country near the start of the Nullarbor Plains. Some families were still living on their lands, unaware of the danger the bombs would cause. In 1957, during the Buffalo series of atomic tests, the Milipuddy family was discovered walking near the Marcoo bomb crater, an area classified as highly contaminated. The Pom Pom incident, as it was called, proved that there were still Anangu living in a restricted area. Personnel involved were told that they were not to say anything about finding the family at ground zero. In its heyday, Maralinga village had a population of 3,000 people. In 1967, the British Government relinquished ownership back to Australia. Operation Brumby, the official clean-up, fulfilled Britain's agreement to hand back the land. According to the records, 24,400g of highly radioactive and poisonous plutonium were used for the tests. About 900g were repatriated back to the UK at the time. In 1974, salvage rights at Maralinga village were granted to the Yalata community. The only precaution given was to show the fenced-in no-go areas.

YVONNE EDWARDS: Sometimes we have good times there at the village. Go out looking for milipa, there's a lot down near the barrier. We go out, go out digging rabbits near the airstrip. Go hunting all the time every afternoon.

MIMA SMART: I didn't thought about the danger in Maralinga when I first got there. I thought it was a safe and a good place. When I first seen it, there was a church in the end of the street, where you come in to Maralinga, you see this church right there, and it make me feel good they've got a church there. And I thought there was a pastor there, but they had a pastor drive in from Yalata to have the service. Cos a lot of them young people was working, the old people, old ladies. Margaret was just one of them. Some real families was there, so I feel happy that we're home. But I didn't thought about how dangerous the surrounding area was.

YVONNE EDWARDS: I used to go out at night, and just sit on the swimming pool, me and some other ladies, just looking at the train going through at night. You can see it from there. And it was a nice, cool place to sit on top of the swimming pool. And it was really calm and hot, and not much people there, that was really quiet at the village. My husband went back there to work, to help. They were selling everything on the village, like sheds and things. And my husband was working there, and a couple of other fellas. They couldn't take the women at first, but second trip, we went. They said, "Oh, it's all right." So some of the ladies went. When I was walking around the village, me and some ladies, we opened a big kitchen lounge room, where they feed all the soldiers. Everything was still on the table, like their plates and glasses. Knives and forks, it was all there on the table. They never cleaned anything up, just left everything and just went. Then we went to this big shed, that they call it a store shed. Seen all these blankets and pillows, everything just there. Then, we said, "We should take some of this back to our community, give it to the old people." So we go one weekend, we put everything on the truck, all the blankets, pillows, whatever there, take it back to the community. We gave it to all the old people and young people. There was plenty for everyone. So we said we'll bring more back. We just keep doing that. Now, when I look back, you know, I always think about this. Why did we take them things back to our people? Why didn't someone tell us it was wrong? That's why probably, when they cover themselves over the blanket, you know, they breathe in all that stuff. That's why they probably got sick. I don't know why I'm still alive cos I went everywhere where I shouldn't have went, you know. We see cracks on the ground, and the men say, "Let's dig it up, have a look what's in there." So they dig it up with a front-end loader. They see old Land Rovers, washing machine, fridges, all buried in the ground and they cover it over again. We go out for witchetty grubs all the time. There's plenty there. We always go out, see something there, and people want to have a look, you know. They thought it was safe, but it wasn't safe. We had a couple of white staff there. Probably they didn't know anything too. Cos they didn't tell us anything. No other fellas was there, just the two white fellas from the community, and Aboriginal people, a few Aboriginals, workers. And a lot of people come in like farmers and things, they come buy sheds, and anything, what they see, they buy and take it back to their farms, property. Like a church's gone. The church was there, it was a lovely church. I think that church went to Nunji. They bought it. And that big hall, very big hall there, it went to Coober Pedy, I think. A lot of fellas buying sheds cos there was a lot of sheds there.

PAULINE CLAGUE:Maralinga was predominantly forgotten until the '80s when both the Royal Commission into the effects of the tests and a fight for land rights took place.

YVONNE EDWARDS: In the '80s, when they got the land back, they was very happy. Somewhere where they can call home. Yalata wasn't really their home.

JEFFREY QUEAMA: One man was talking for us, fighting for our land. And also fighting for compensation, you know.

MABEL QUEAMA: We're talking for land back. Men have been asking for land back. And really, we've been fighting for that land. And they've been to get them. They've been down in Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney.

JEFFREY QUEAMA: There was men who went to London to visit that government. About three or four, I think. I didn't went, because I stayed, I was doing work.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL AT CEREMONY: The chairman has said, I'm now going to pass on this land-grant title to two of the older men of our community as we think about receiving this land.

(APPLAUSE)

MABEL QUEAMA: They even asked for land back and they've been given. We've all been there.

JEFFREY QUEAMA: Take this sand here. You know? So we're proud that people have been fighting for us.

MIMA SMART: And it was about time that old people got that land back. They was feeling happy. For a long time, they've been having meetings and meetings about going back home, and the government departments was all saying, "It's too dangerous to go back home, the bomb has destroyed your land. And if you go back, you might get sick." But people were just crying, they wanted to go back home. They knew that one day, they won't be there for a long time on that land, but they really wanted to go back, to get out to their land. Because they'd been travelling round that area before the bomb was tested.

PAULINE CLAGUE:Scientists confirmed in the '80s that hundreds of square kilometres were still contaminated with radioactive debris. Another clean-up was ordered this time to get rid of the topsoil. Many Anangu got jobs on the clean-up.

YVONNE EDWARDS: They had some things in a drum, and they got a cover over. My husband was driving the front-end loader, and other men was there. They had masks on and protected clothes, but he had normal clothes, and he was on the top of the front-end loader. Probably they digged a hole and buried them drums. And we wasn't far from there, we were not allowed to go near that place, but we just walked past to the airstrip, and we could see them working there. Later on in, you know, they should have told my husband what it was, and they should have given him something to put over his mouth, like a mask or something. But they didn't. They should have done that, you know. They was doing it to all the other white fellas, but not to him cos he is an Aboriginal person. One time, we went to the place where the bomb went off. I went there a couple of times. And it was north wind blowing. We got off the tourer, just walking around, and you can see it was still hot. Then there's a fence around it, and we were just walking, and I had no shoes on. The workers there. Then this old lady told me, "Can we go and cook our witchetty grub? Not far from there, you know there's good soft sand there." So we just walked along the bitumen, turned off and cooked it. The men were still there watching, looking at that place. You know, you look around, miles away, you see no trees, just nothing. Trees are all dead. Even the grasses are dead. Probably no kangaroos there. So we cooked our things, we went back to the village, then we was telling this white fella, "Oh, we went to that place." "You shouldn't be there, you're not allowed to go there." You know, it's... It's still hot. And nobody told us. But we've been there.

MABEL QUEAMA: Yeah, Taranaki, that's the place. I've been there. That's where Edward gets sick. That night, I'd been down and go back to camp. I couldn't sleep, I'd been coughing all the night. That day, that night. Coughing, coughing, coughing, coughing, coughing. That time, I got a feeling... I felt no good. Can't breathe properly. Can't move, I can't turn. I can't breathe properly. I can't walk much, you know. I walked and sit down there. "I'd better go and see a doctor. Is the doctor there?" And then come and go on the plane, doctor came in from Port Augusta. And that doctor tell me, "You've got a bad lung." I still got them now.

MIMA SMART: Years came and then we're told, "Radiation was still on that ground where you was working." So I don't know if I've got that sickness. We don't know, doesn't tell me how healthy I am, but when you go older, get older and know when you feel sick.

YVONNE EDWARDS: He stayed there the longest at that village. I stayed with three small children. We had an aeroplane down, a community plane. And that fella who was staying with us, a white fella, he was a pilot. He bring us back to Yalata for weekends or for a week. This lot of other ladies come, and men, like all the men who've been worked here, they're all finished now. My husband got lung cancer. Before that he had trouble with the eye, he couldn't see properly. He had cancer all over his lung, and it was spreading fast. Sometimes I cry at night. I think my mother, great grandmother, they're all gone. My aunties, uncles, they was young, they all died. Just like us here now in our 50s, we got nobody over 60s or 70s in that community. Even people died when they was young. I lost a sister when she was in her 20s from cancer. I lost an uncle, 40s, from cancer. My auntie died from cancer. We used to have lot of people when we first come from Ooldea, there's people everywhere. I was going to school at Ooldea Tank when I was six, seven years old, when the first school started, I walked to the school. And we used to have a lot of people, old people. But now, there's probably only Alice Cox, Mr Minning and Ida and Margaret. That's all of the old fellas. They've got a big centre for old people, but no old people. Just a couple.

PAULINE CLAGUE:The Anangu are still awaiting their final hand-back of their restricted zone, of which Maralinga village is part. They are hoping it will be in December this year, 25 years after the first of their land was handed back.

YVONNE EDWARDS: I heard in December they're getting that place back. It's gonna be a big day here for everyone. But I think, you know, it's not... it's not really good to live there now. Like put camps up for the old people. That place is already damaged. Damage is done, you can't fix that. I think they'll probably go for a visit or just look around. But nobody would like to live there now, at the village, especially.

JEFFREY QUEAMA: For the next generation, you know. Keep them alive, they don't have to go to that place. People will have to work around, it's locked, and nobody's not allowed to go camping in that area. They know. Just go around the area where the bomb was test. They know this poison is still there. But don't worry, as long as they come back to Oak Valley, and that's it, they're proud. The old people, they're going there. Only a few of them old people left. Them old people who was here, who was happy. As soon as they went, they got their land back.

CHRISTOBEL MATTINGLEY:: That's at Oak Valley.

YVONNE EDWARDS: These are footprints of the people.

PAULINE CLAGUE:For the last eight years, the Oak Valley and Yalata communities have collaborated with author Christobel Mattingley to gather their stories into a book.

MIMA SMART: It was very important for my mind that it's a chance for us to make a book. From Anangu, telling a story from the old people, putting a book together about what has happened to their life, and to pass them. What has happened to them in between those years, and from today, what has happened. And how they're feeling now about the place they're living in today like Oak Valley and Yalata.

(EXPLOSION BOOMS)

CHRISTOBEL MATTINGLEY:: The story of the injustices to the Aboriginal people, the Anangu people, through the Maralinga atomic testing are not widely known or remembered now. I've done some quite major sessions with 400 students recently, and only four out of those 400 students knew what Maralinga meant. And at another school, three Year 6 classes, none of the students had heard of Maralinga. It's a chapter that people have forgotten, and it's a tragic chapter, and it's an extremely important chapter of Australian history. So to have its own book told from the Arangu point of view, I felt was a very important thing and so did they.

YVONNE EDWARDS: Maralinga - The Anangu Story is our story. We have told it to our children, our grandchildren and their children. So we are telling the world about this story.

(EXPLOSION RUMBLES)

MIRIAM COROWA:What an extraordinary story. How many Anangu were contaminated and died remains a mystery due to the secrecy of the tests and bureaucratic indifference to their well being. Next week, on a lighter note, the success story of Indigenous radio in Sydney...tune in!

In the meantime, if you would like to watch this program again or leave a message on our Guestbook go to our website abc.net.au/messagestick